Functional Literacy

References

Colours Lesson Ideas

Have colour days. Each
day celebrate one colour. Encourgae students to wear that colour to school(send
a coloured piece of paper home the night before), have snack that is that
colour (bananas on yellow day), paint with that colour, go on a hunt for items
of the special colour around the school, learn a poem about that colour.

Play Colour Match. Have
students give you a block that is the same colour as yours.

Sort items by colour.

Cut out red things from
magazines. Make a chart to glue your pictures to. Is your picture clothing,
food, nature, a sign or a book?

Make a colour scrapbook.
Work on one colour page at a time. Add colour swatches, magazine pictures, etc.
Help students write the name of the colour on the page and tell the rest of the
class about it.

Make paper chains with
patterns of colours. Ask students “What colour comes next?”

Talk about the colours of
the rainbow. Give students crayons for each colour of the rainbow and walk them
through how to draw their own rainbow.

Show students some still
life paintings. Arrange items that are the same colour on a table and have
students do their own still life paintings.

Have students sit in a
circle. Ask “who is wearing a red shirt and black shoes?” The student who
matches this description should stand up and say “I’m wearing a red shirt and
black shoes.”

Play I Spy. Look around
the room for objects and have students guess by giving them a clue about the
colour. “I spy with my little eye something that is blue.”

Have students guess an
object that you describe. “I’m thinking about something that is red and grows on
trees.”

Change colours! Use baby
food jars and coloured water to allow students to experiment with colour
mixing.

Introduce shades of
colours. Once students are familiar with the basic colours, teach them terms
like light, dark, pale, bright. Use paint samples from hardware stores to help.
Can students use these descriptive words to describe their clothes? “I’m
wearing a light pick sweater today.”

Read books about colours
like Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle.

Write this poem on the
board:

An apple is red.

A pepper is green.

Name the colour of a
tangerine!

A banana is
yellow.

The sky is blue.

Name the colour of your
own shoe!

Ask students to think of
new words that they can substitute for the underlined words.

Color Glove: Teach kids five colors with this song and idea from www.preschoolrainbow.org/toddler-theme.htm.
Take white gloves and paint the fingers only of both hands. Paint them red, yellow,
blue, green, orange, so that you have two of each color. Then, sing this
song.

Tune: "Are You Sleeping"

Where is red? (bring one hand up with all fingers showing)

Where is red? (repeat with other hand.)

Here I am, (wave one hand)

Here I am (wave other hand)

Show me if you can, (Hold hands up)

Show me if you can.

Where is red?

Where is red?

Repeat this with all the colors allowing the kids to show you the
colors.

Color Houses : Cut the six different felt pieces
into houses- about 4-6 inches big(big enough to hide a mouse under). Cut the
brown felt into a mouse. Using a felt board hide the mouse under a colored
house without the children seeing and have them guess the color the mouse is
under. Have them say the names of the colors.